FRUIT TREES AND LANDSCAPES IN MEDIEVAL ITALY (12TH AND 14TH CENTURIES)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of rural landscape in the Italian Medieval Peninsula focusing on the case of arboriculture during the 12^th and 14^th centuries. The author highlights the lack of attention on this topic in the studies dedicated to the Agrarian Italian History and later deals with the evolution of the cultures of olive tree, chestnut tree, citrus and other fruit trees. The population growth and the changes in the diet during 12^th and 13^th centuries will give place to an expansion of the arboriculture that in some cases will generate a specialized agriculture and will transform the agrarian landscape typical of areas as the Mezzogiorno or Liguria. Though with different regional intensities and a short brake on the growth during the crisis of the 14^th century, by the end of the 15^th century we can see in Italy different single crop farming areas orientated to the market and other lands where the exploitation of species like chesnut tree plays an important role for the communities of the environment.